Upcoming Events - Instructional Technologists at Liberal Arts Colleges

June 2 - 4, 2008 , 4:00 p.m. (M) - 1:00 p.m. (W)
DePauw University, Greencastle, IN

Brief Introduction

A conference for "front-line" instructional technologists from participating colleges who provide direct support and assistance to faculty members and are interested in developing approaches to shared problems and cultivating a more robust network of peers. (7 program units. Liaisons' deadline: Monday, March 3, 2008)

Level

Appropriate for all levels of experience

Description

Instructional technologists occupy a unique “front-line” position on campus: they are most directly responsible for helping their campuses’ faculties understand how academic curricula can be strengthened by using specific technologies (and technology in general). In addition, they also are responsible for helping faculty members integrate these technologies effectively into their classes. At small residential colleges, instructional technologists who pursue this work face a particular set of challenges:

Many requests—often more than can be addressed simultaneously—for extensive support and assistance for faculty members and their projects and ideas
Inadequate time to address these requests
An uncertain professional location between the information technology or information services organization and the faculty, owing allegiance to both
Association with an emerging professional group that lacks clear definition and is differently titled and differently understood from one campus to another
Rising expectations for services by the client community as use of systems and applications in the curriculum increases and becomes more complex (available resources remain fixed)
Engagement with and perceived responsibility for applications and systems that may be outdated, created by others without adequate documentation, unsupported, or unsupportable
Few or no on-campus peers or colleagues
Need for a broad understanding of academic processes and priorities as well as relevant technologies and a need continually to update this understanding as technologies, processes, and priorities all evolve and change
Insufficient opportunity for networking and professional development
Limited opportunity for contact with others in similar roles on similar campuses

Participants in this conference will focus on developing approaches to these shared problems and cultivating a more robust network of peers. This professional development opportunity will focus on the needs of instructional technology staff members whose primary responsibility is providing direct support and assistance to faculty. Participants will share their own successful practices and those of their campuses; learn from the successful practices of others; and explore and consider potentially useful tools and services to support the continued development of a peer-to-peer community of instructional technologists from NITLE participating colleges.

Each campus may nominate up to two instructional technologists, within the limits of the conference's participation capacity. Nominated individuals may have titles other than "instructionsl technologist," such as "academic information associate," "curricular technology specialist," etc.

Current Agenda

Download the conference agenda (.pdf, 116.13 KB) and selected presentation materials, including

"Who We Are" (opening presentation) (.pdf, 407.99 KB)
"The Portable Classroom: Engaging Digital Natives with Dynamic Course Content" (Jen Sader, NITLE) (.pdf, 1.93 MB)
"Audio Recording Kits" (Jason Alley, Lafayette College) (.pdf, 2.43 MB)

How to Participate

Interested faculty and staff from participating colleges: To participate in this conference, please contact your campus liaison. Your campus liaison will select your campus's nominees and send their names to NITLE. Nominees will receive further information from NITLE about the registration process.

Deadline

Liaisons from participating colleges should complete the nomination process no later than Monday, March 3, 2008. Participation is determined on a first-come, first-served basis.

Contact (program)

For more information about this conference, please contact Nancy Millichap.

Contact (logistics)

For logistical questions, please contact Terri Coahran.

Other Information

Please note that a conference for instructional technology leaders—those who, however titled, manage instructional technology units—is being offered in April 2008.